... There can be no doubt about faith and not reason being the ultima ratio. Even Euclid, who has laid himself as little open to the charge of credulity as any writer who ever lived, cannot get beyond this. He has no demonstrable first premise. He requires postulates and axioms which transcend demonstration, and without which he can do nothing. His superstructure indeed is demonstration, but his ground his faith. Nor again can he get further than telling a man he is a fool if he persists in differing from him. He says 'which is absurd,' and declines to discuss the matter further. Faith and authority, therefore, prove to be as necessary for him as for anyone else.
More Quotes from Samuel Butler, the Younger:
Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to market it.Samuel Butler, the Younger
It hath been said that an unjust peace is to be preferred before a just war.
Samuel Butler, the Younger
It is better to have loved and lost than to never have lost at all.
Samuel Butler, the Younger
It has been said that though God cannot alter the past, historians can it is perhaps because they can be useful to Him in this respect that He tolerates their existence.
Samuel Butler, the Younger
Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man may make, provided only he follows it outwith charitable inconsistency, and without insisting on it to the bitter end. It is in the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and notin the dogma or want of dogma that the danger lies.
Samuel Butler, the Younger
'Man wants but little here below' but likes that little goodand not too long in coming.
Samuel Butler, the Younger
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Belief & Faith Quotes, Fool Quotes, Man QuotesBased on Keywords: axioms, credulity, declines, demonstrable, differing, euclid, persists, postulates, superstructure, which
I'm clenched down, I'm locked in on it, which is my general approach to life.
James Ellroy
If we have been brought up with the idea that life is for suffering and sacrifice, then of course we would seek death to escape this 'vale of tears'.
Claude Vorilhon
I've flown out of character so many times. In that sense I've been lucky, because I've been given the liberty to do just about anything I've wanted to do in my lifetime.
June Carter Cash